December 12, 2014: Education News We're Reading This Week

Posted December 12, 2014 | By Cooke Foundation Staff

December 12, 2014—Here is what’s new in education news this week.

Technological Horizons in Education shares their take on last week’s White House Summit on College Opportunity, focusing on a push to “build up the number of graduates in STEM fields.” The article also discusses the “600 new actions” announced by the White House.

What exactly is the best way to borrow for college? The Fiscal Times takes a shot at answering this question, sharing four steps to “ensure you’re making the best decisions on student loans.”

Read this opinion piece on CNN by Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, and Mark Becker, president of Georgia State University. The co-authors outline the University Innovation Alliance, which has grown out of a need to help reverse the fact that “students from high-income households are 10 times more likely to attain a college degree than are low-income students.”

A new survey reports that 98 percent of major U.S. CEOs believe the skills gap—specifically as pertains to STEM fluency—is hurting their business. Many are also Common Core State Standards supporters, writes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in an effort to improve basic academic skills for American students.

The Daily Beast published a piece on undermatching this week, which explains in detail the great tragedy of low-income students who do not apply to top institutions and makes suggestions on what can be done.

In receiving calls for applications for a nonexistent son, the author of this New York Times piece learned about the College Board and ACT’s selling of student names. “The more students a college can persuade to apply,” she writes, “the more they can turn down, making their “admit rate” look, in some cases, spectacularly exclusive.”

Education Dive lists the 10 ways higher education could be impacted by the newly-elected, Republican-led Congress. FAFSA, Pell Grants, and for-profit colleges are covered in this piece, and more.

Senate Democrats are working on a cut that would see $303 million drained from the successfully-utilized Pell Grant program, writes The Washington Post.

Graduate Scholar Sa’ed Atshan spoke at Loyola University about LGBTQ rights and politics in the Holy Land, writes Windy City Times. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in International Studies at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, as well as a lecturer in Peace and Justice Studies at Tufts University.

Lalita Booth, a former Undergraduate Transfer Scholar, will be the keynote speaker at the commencement ceremony of her alma mater, Seminole State College. Booth fought through homelessness to graduate with honors from Seminole State, received two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Central Florida, and is Florida’s first and only Truman Scholar.

Former Young Scholar, College Scholar, Graduate Scholar, and Juilliard alum Peter Dugan was featured in yesterday’s Washington Post. The pianist teamed up with baritone John Brancy in a WWI tribute for Wednesday’s Vocal Arts DC recital.

We are pleased to share that Emily Froimson, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s vice president of programs, has been named to the Board of Trustees of Phi Theta Kappa alongside Valerie Baldwin.